The kids got a big surprise this afternoon, both Nick and I picked them up from school together. They were generous with their excitement over everyone being their together, and we had a fun ride home, telling jokes and laughing. When we got home they were behaving so nicely that Nick and I thought we would reward them with dinner outside and a campfire. Tes and Christian went outside with enthusiasm, but that's about when the magic ended.
Christian started yelling the moment he got in his chair, demanding to see the chickens and have a campfire. Anything but eat his food. Tes refused to get in her chair unless someone carried her to it, something we have been trying to discourage. Pretty soon she had joined her brother in a chorus of crying. Finally we warned that if the crying did not stop, the campfire privilege would be taken away. Unfortunately, we ended up back inside, no campfire in our future.
Christian calmed down fairly quickly but Tessie continued the mourning of the campfire for a while. Both Nick and I were hanging to our patience by a thread, but took deep breaths and together explained why we weren’t having the campfire. Amazingly, Tessie’s cries became sniffles, and she actually listened to us. We explained that if she could show us she was a big girl we could have a campfire another night.
Both kids finished their dinner and got to have desert. Bath went well and we all played together before Nick read books. Tes went to bed without a complaint, Christian took a little more work but all is quiet now. It can be so disappointing when we have fun plans for the kids and they fall apart because of tears or timeouts. Very rarely do moments like these get resolved and turn into a fun evening. Tonight we were given one of those rare “you are doing a good job” gifts from our children. Without yelling or losing our tempers we were actually able to reason with our kids, and we were rewarded with a wonderful rest of the night. What a beautiful turn of events.
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